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The world's climate could be hijacked by a rogue country or wealthy individual firing small particles into the stratosphere, claims a warning that comes not from a new Hollywood movie trailer but a sober report from the World Economic Forum (WEF). The deployment of independent, large-scale "geoengineering" techniques aimed at averting dangerous warming warrants more research because it could lead to an international crisis with unpredictable costs to agriculture, infrastructure and global stability, said the Geneva-based WEF in its annual Global Risks report before the Davos economic summit later this month. It also warned that ongoing economic weakness is sapping the ability of governments to tackle the growing threat of climate change.

An excellent talk by British climate scientist Kevin Anderson, highlighting the unreasonably optimistic assumptions behind the current world planning for mitigating climate change. Underscores the need for the wealthy world to take the lead, in terms of capacity and equity.

"Let's replace our fixation on growth with a steady-state economy focusing on lower consumption, leisure and ecological health" - "... it isn't true that the more we buy, the happier we are. Endless growth means endlessly increasing production and endlessly increasing consumption. Social critics have for a long time pointed out the resulting hollowness carried by that thesis. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet. ..."

"Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050. Leading water scientists have issued one of the sternest warnings yet about global food supplies, saying that the world's population may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages. ... Dire warnings of water scarcity limiting food production come as Oxfam and the UN prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years. Prices for staples such as corn and wheat have risen nearly 50% on international markets since June, triggered by severe droughts in the US and Russia, and weak monsoon rains in Asia. More than 18 million people are already facing serious food shortages across the Sahel."

Glencore, the worlds largest commodities trading company spokesman said that "drought is good for business" that will make them enormous profits, providing the "world with solutions while trading in potential starvation and hunger of the world's population. Have been lobbying governments heavily around the world to water down and halt reforms which would cut into their profit margins.

By Paul Craig Roberts A coward dies many deaths; a brave man dies but once. The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington’s servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. “We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony,” declared Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum

Sea ice in the Arctic is disappearing at a far greater rate than previously expected, according to data from the first purpose-built satellite launched to study the thickness of the Earth's polar caps. Preliminary results from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 probe indicate that 900 cubic kilometers of summer sea ice has disappeared from the Arctic ocean over the past year. This rate of loss is 50% higher than most scenarios outlined by polar scientists and suggests that global warming, triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions, is beginning to have a major impact on the region. In a few years the Arctic ocean could be free of ice in summer, triggering a rush to exploit its fish stocks, oil, minerals and sea routes.

A report last month by a London - and Washington, D.C.- based group called Global Witness ... says that 106 environmental activists were killed in 2011, the highest number ever recorded, up from 96 the previous year; 711 deaths have been documented in the last decade, in 34 different countries. Many of these were targeted assassinations; others occurred in the violent suppression of protests ... In all, 592 of the recorded killings were in Latin America, 108 in Asia (almost half of them in the Philippines), and 11 in Africa.

Researchers have found that implanted identity chips can pick up computer viruses.

Despite having protected status, the biodiversity in a large number of tropical forests is still continuing to decline, a study has suggested. The authors said the findings should cause concern because the areas have been seen as a final refuge for a number of threatened species. Habitat disruption, hunting and timber exploitation have been seen as signs of future decline, they added. The findings have been published online by the science journal Nature.